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An inquest into the death of Reshall Jimmy, the man who burnt to death in his Ford Kuga while holidaying in the Wilderness in the Western Cape in 2015, will finally be taking place, and senior prosecutor Gerrie Nel will be representing the Jimmy family.
This is what AfriForum announced on Wednesday morning, at its offices in Centurion, where Nel serves as head of the civil rights organisation’s private prosecution unit.
The family has made painstaking attempts at getting answers from the motor company, which has seen more than 80 of its Kuga’s catch alight on the roads across the country.
In January last year, Ford South Africa announced a massive safety recall of some of its Kuga models equipped with the 1.6-litre engine made between December 2012 and February 2014. Ford at the time said that 4556 vehicles had been affected by the safety recall.
Following Reshall’s death, an online “JusticeforJimmy” petition to the Motor Industry Ombudsman of South Africa and the National Consumer Commission was started by a close friend of Jimmy’s after Ford SA had taken weeks to recall his Kuga model, despite numerous reports of problems.
The last time that the family heard from Ford was in 2017, when they were in touch with the company’s then chief executive, Jeff Nemeth, who has since returned to the United States.
“When Jeff Nemeth left the country, Ford decided not to talk to the Jimmy family again, not at all,” said Nel.
“The first discussion about the Jimmy family happened when we got involved,” Nel said at the media conference.
Reshall’s sister, Renisha, spoke of the battle that her family has had against the motor giant in trying to get justice.
“I just hope that it comes to an end so that our family can actually grieve. We haven’t had a chance for that. It’s just been fighting from day one to get some form of justice,” she said.
Nel has accused Ford of being a “corporate bully” and of bullying the family, after the family was offered a brand new vehicle to the value of R1 milllion, as well as a trust in Reshall’s name, an offer that was firmly rejected by the family.
At the briefing, Nel expressed his disappointment at the way Ford had handled Jimmy’s death.
“We’re dealing with what we perceive to be an international corporate bully, that’s Ford Motor Company.
"We’ve heard that during these meetings Ford would say ‘we have deep pockets’, creating the impression that we can do what we want to do. They have deep pockets and they will defend,” he said.
The inquest is set to begin in February next year.
